KU activists to celebrate Transgender Awareness Day

Kansas University's Queers & Allies will be celebrating Transgender Awareness Day on Wednesday with activist and educator Debra Davis.

Davis is the executive director of the Gender Education Center, a Minnesota-based advocacy and education organization working toward understanding, acceptance and support for the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender communities, with an emphasis on transgender issues.

Davis will give a presentation at 7 p.m. Wednesday in Room 305 Courtside in the Burge Union.

The Gender Education Center since 1991 has presented hundreds of workshops and presentations involving many thousands of participants. For more information about Davis, click on www.debradavis.org . For more information about the presentation, call Rachel at (913) 449-7887 or e-mail qanda@ku.edu.

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Comments

Pogo, you have a special kind of hate, that reserved for the Klan or the Nazis.It must come from a very deep and profound self loathing.I pity your empty soul, and your ignorance.Transgender is not a bedroom activity, it is defined very clearly as the cure for gender identity disorder and by and large has been very successful.I do not know the cure for everything wrong with your heart, but I hope you find the help you need before you hurt yourself, your family or others.

Yay! People are afflicted in a way I don't understand! I get to mock someone! I get to reduce every conflict between self and society to sex! All people that aren't me are deviant and should keep it hidden from my view! My freedom from deviance allows me to judge them! Yay!

none2: "Thus, Tangential should be happy about their relationship. It would be a natural and complementary with deep compatibility (that one rarely finds without the aid of eHarmony).",;-DWhoa, someone's actually reading ( and recalling! ) my tripe. Scary.

Pogo, dead on.Keep the bedroom activities in those four walls. That goes for a number of groups that trot them out and then bray about others staying out of their business. Hint - we don't want to know about your business. No need for a struggle to be treated 'differently' or 'equally' (make up your mind) if you don't trot it out. And then they complain about it not being our business. Sounds self-inflicted in the end, all of it.And to Tange's point, where does it end? Doing things in private, stepping out in new clothes, hormone therapy, snip, snip, therapy? What step along the way completes the process - or is it really possible to be 'complete'? Perhaps the bravest move is to exist as you were created and expend your energy on helping others, rather than gazing (for way too long) at your navel.

Paul,It seems very easy to read far too much into these bizarre expressions of "gender" self-perception. To cut to the core, why would the identity of an individual, naturally born to a natural environment, EVER depend on some surgical procedure?Even in instances where surgery is not sought ( my reference to so-called "dress up" ) don't these "gender" expressions typically take the form of some societal imposition of gender stereotyping-men dressing in women's clothing, wearing makeup and jewelry, and adopting social mannerisms-NONE of which have any real relationship to masculinity and femininity in a fundamental sense?A woman is no more a dress, makeup, jewelry, or manner than I am a dog for wearing a leash, fetching objects, and barking. ( And surgery, in the latter instance, would just be beyond bizarre. )Frankly, it's amazing to me that the medical community ever got onboard with this nonsense. When identity is wrapped up in that in which one wraps oneself, then it is lost in fluff. When it is reassigned with the scalpel, then identity is lost on the cutting room floor ( if not long before ) .

zookiechik: "I think this is great. Someday, most of us will be tolerant of others and accept them in all their beauty."Transgender? So, is the the sex-change thang, or just dress-up?Why is it that we ought to "be tolerant of... and accept" others who seem unable to accept themselves?And how many superficial adjustments does it take to transform a man into a woman ( or vice-versa ) ? Or have we found a way to change every chromosome in this brave, new world of ours?

Multi,Sounds like the harm is more due to people's reactions then the decision of your friend's brother to transition. There are people who biologically are one sex but deeply identity with the other gender. If you want a painless-in fact-hilarious look at what transgendered go through check out a book called She's Not There by Jennifer Boylan.http://www.google.com/books?id=4esfAAAACAAJ&dq=Jennifer+Finney+Boylan&source=an&pgis=1As for Pogo's comments- transgender folk of all stripes are killed for even daring to cross society's gender divide and so I am not sure why he finds the desire of transgender folks to not be killed and have basic civil rights to be so morally offensive. Tangent, you mention that these people aren't accepting "themselves". Well what is "themselves"? Is it the plumbing they have when they are born or is "themselves" bound up with an internal identity that they have to accept and deal with? It may seem paradoxical but acceptance may involve changing their physical appearance through surgery to match their identity. The transgendered are a diverse group of people and the causes of transgendered feelings appears to be complex with some suggestion of a role for genetics, in utero hormonal influences and maybe early imprinting. What ever the cause, why should the transgendered have to conform to the rigid gender lines imposed by society? For that matter, why should any one have to?

Tange,Good questions, but maybe you have the identity issue backwards-the surgery or the dress etc don't make the identity-you are quite right there- but rather these are attempts however imperfect to bring the external appearance more in line with the identity.Gender identity seems to be pretty basic and in some folks it simply does not match what the outside observer thinks that person's identity "ought" to be. From what I have seen, trangendered people often go through years of misery trying to conform with what other people have assigned them to be.

Help me... I have not decided yet. Am I a boy, man, girl, woman, or something else. At 75 yrs old I should know.... but what the heck, I guess it's my choice. I have been a lesbian all my life but things could change.

I would agree that social expectation and conformity are at the root here, as the source of both the misery which you describe AND the rather bizarre "resolution" of such. I can't help but think, however, that identity is obscured in either case.And, of course, I always value your perspectives, so ( politely and ) eloquently shared... but... Paul... I have to know... you aren't wearing a dress, are you?I mean, that would totally creep me out, having just expressed my affection for you, as I have.,;-D

Chill Pogo. How does one little article translate to transgender issues "dominate"? Hmmm a bull roar? I bet you will find that transgendered people as a group are every bit as interested in the sorts of larger social justice issues you mention.You certainly raise good questions about the big economic issues issues and inequalities in America! Maybe Obama can refocus America on these issues. But don't blame the transgendered for larger failures of our society.

They are not non issues to gays and transgendered who are discriminated against...let's see here... who was it that said something to the effect that whatever you do to your neighbor you do it unto me....Unfortunately what has managed to capture the headlines is often sensationalism a la Jerry Springer and stereotyping. THAT is what distracts from focusing on oppression and from my way of thinking oppression is oppression is oppression.and that's my position and I'm sticking to it. ;-)Regards,Paul

Pogo,you are a bigot and have failed America, plain and simple, there is not excuse for your hatred other than you are very flawed and have a sickness that could become a cancer to society if allowed to spread.